Piotr Rajski's Blog

Follow my blog with Bloglovin I am joining Bloglovin' though I am not quite sure what it would involve. Found a few other blogs about retirement. Stay posted! (I will expand on this post).

Ged was incredible this morning. Normally tired after I throw him 10 balls across, now covered with grass, ice-ring, he did 34 runs today. First twenty, and after a short break, another fourteen. Unlike some other dog owners, I don't give him a treat after he brings the ball back. His only natural reward is the opportunity to run fast and having some fun with his master. He was so engaged in the play that he appeared oblivious to what was happening around him. He also seemed to ignore his own tiredness. One could say that Ged was "in the zone." Hiking Sulphur Skyline in Oct 2018. Being "in the zone," or experiencing so called " flow ," is also believed to be good for humans. At least, this is what some research, inspired by  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi , suggests. I sometimes get the flow when reading an interesting book, or when playing bridge, or working on some household projects. It happens to me when I hike in the mountains or when I make lo...

West Edmonton Seniors Activity Centre My routines seem to have been established. I start with the morning walk - Ged being nice to me lately, waking me closer to 6 than 5 am. Right after the walk I have to take a shower. If I don't do it at this point, I have difficulty finding time to do it later. There was even one day that I had not showered at all! Brr! After simple breakfast and listening to the news, while sipping my morning tea, I try to use the rest of the morning to do something productive - conceptual work (things requiring "thinking") or attending to things that are, in one way or another, unpleasant for me (mundane tasks, communicating about something difficult). In the afternoon, when my energy level seems to wean off, I try to do some errands. Yesterday I checked out the local seniors' centre - out of curiosity and to promote my new AGE Program. First of all, I was impressed with how big the facility was. The second impressive thing was that the...

Erik Erikson, (1902-1994). " Generativity " is a relatively new concept for me, which I picked up from Kenneth S. Schultz's - "Happy Retirement - the Psychology of Reinvention." Originally coined by Erik Erikson to explain a human need to "contribute to the world." Unlike "generosity," which normally means sharing one's wealth or financial means, generativity is about sharing one's gifts, skills, experience, expertise and ... wisdom! Following this impulse, I thought, I could try to share some of the skills that I acquired during the forty years of professional practice as psychologist. More so than "passing on the flame" to young generations, I would like to offer my skills to the people of my age - "young at heart" retirees or about retirees. Thus, I am starting a new program, called AGE - Age Group Explorations. The idea is to give people of my generation an opportunity for "meaningful conversatio...

I have just finished "Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli" (A treatise on shelling beans) by Polish author - Wiesław Myśliwski . This book was highly recommended (in fact, a gift) from my sister and brother-in-law. Though I am not a literary critic, I would like to share a few thoughts in as much as the book seems to be relevant to the subjects of this blog. First of all, it reads well. I normally prefer non-fiction, but this book seems to have a natural flow and kept me wanting to get to know what would happen next. It is written in a fashion of monologue of the main character, unnamed (to give him a more universal appeal?), a person of simple origins, but a very inquisitive mind. The monologue (at times inferred dialogue with the author of the book) is colorful - it reminds me a bit of the flavor and richness of Bohumil Hrabal 's prose. It seems to be based on a real life story, which Myśliwski heard about or perhaps, I speculate, even recorded. The main character appears t...

Not to be accused of reinventing the wheel, I checked out a couple of books on psychological aspects of retirement. The first one is "Happy Retirement  - the Psychology of Reinvention" by dr Kenneth S. Schultz (2015), NY: Penguin Random House. Quite comprehensive, it covers subjects such as relationship between work and retirement, planning for retirement, psychology of change and transition, living well and reinventing yourself. Today I would like to summarize the authors thoughts on "Time Together" as it relates to my yesterday's post. Drawing from the research of Miriam Goodman who, reportedly, interviewed "several hundred subjects," the author makes the following recommendations: Take your time - you don't have to do everything you planned together right away Speak up - when partner wants something different than you. This goes along the lines of assertive communication I described in the previous post Stay connected - with other peopl...

A friendly couple came over for supper last Friday. After having a glass of wine, or two, my male counterpart, Andrew, embarked on a rather risky activity of ... complaining about his wife. As he looked compelled to do it, and to make things somewhat lighter, I jumped in and brought up a few things that irritate me in my wife's functioning. Soon, we had a spontaneous "therapy session" - men teasing women, and vice versa. And this was nothing really serious - about bra being found on the floor, or too many shoes, or snoring, etc. We had plenty of laughs and generally good time. Still, the next morning, my wife was upset with me, claiming I went too far with some comments. (In particular, she took exception in my jokes about people from Sosnowiec, the town she is from, jokes so popular in Upper Silesia Region, where I grew up.)  The whole experience made me to think - what is the role of my wife in my life , especially now, when we aspire to happy retirement? I...

So the time for the first hike of the year came. I was afraid of it on account of my recent problems with hernia and arthritic pain in my pelvis. This was also not a short hike - Tonquin Valley, where one of the iconic rock formation of Canada, the Ramparts, is located, takes over 16 km. With the sleeping bag and food for 3 days, my backpack was about 8 kg, so I was wondering how my body would withstand it. (For more details of the hike see the photo-story on another blog - here ). I even appealed to my companions, all six of them, to be considered of my conditions and to stay in visual contact with me. In the end my body, with the help of KT Tape, took the first day not too bad. I was aching the first day, but, surprisingly, the next day I felt good. No pains, no aching. This confirmed my belief that, even at older age, we should persist with the physical activity, and not to stop at the first signs of discomfort. Another reason for sticking together was that upper Astoria Valle...